Rice University
12-15, 6-8
SMU
12-15, 4-10
Almond Pours in 40 as Rice Beats SMU, 68-66
3/4/2006 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
March 4, 2006
Rice junior guard Morris Almond scored a career-high 40 points to lead the Rice Owls to a 68-66 come-from-behind victory over visiting SMU at Autry Court. Rice is now 12-15 overall and 6-8 in Conference USA action, while the Mustangs drop to 12-15 and 4-10 in league action. The victory by the Owls gave Rice head coach Willis Wilson his 200th career win at his alma mater.
The Owls were down by 10 (49-39) as baskets by Almond and Patrick Britton cut the lead to 49-43, but a SMU lay-up by Devon Pearson pushed it back to 8 to make it 51-43 at 12:55. But, that's when Almond got hot and outscored SMU 17 to 10 to bring the Owls to within 1 at 61-60 with 5:12 remaining. In that span, Almond hit consecutive three-pointers, threw down two ferocious jams, made 3-3 at the line, and hit two mid-range jumpers that started the spree.
Rice outscored the Mustangs 15-5 in the final 8 minutes as the Rice defense held SMU to without a field goal for 6:47 (8:06 to 1:19). J.R. Harrison made a free throw to tie it a 61-61 with 2:54 to play and then he made his only jumper on the night at 2:05 to give the Owls the lead for good at 63-61. Lorenzo Williams then converted two free throws for a 4 point Rice lead. SMU's Donatas Rackauskas made a basket to make it 65-63 and then Matt Hagen made a free throw and Morris Almond made a free throw to give the Owls a 67-63 lead. Dez Willingham then hit a three-pointer with 12 seconds left to bring SMU to within 1 and then Harrison made a free throw to give Rice a 68-66 lead with 10 second left, but Patrick Britton stole the ball from Dez Willingham to thwart a SMU shot to tie it.
Almond's 40 points is a C-USA season-high and he still is the league's top scorer at 21.6 ppg. Also, Almond set a C-USA single-season scoring average record by averaging 25.1 points in 14 conference games. The previous record was held by TCU's Junior Blount (22.8 ppg in 2002). Almond also led Rice on the glass with 9 rebounds to tie with Devon Pearson of SMU for game honors.
Almond's 40-point effort is the first 40-point output by an Owl since Ricky Pierce scored 40 at Hawaii (Dec. 27, 1981). It is also the first time an Owl has scored 40 points in Autry Court since Doug McKendrick set the school single-game scoring record with 47 vs. Georgia Tech on Dec. 6, 1965.
The Owls were outscored from the field 27 to 21 (8 to 3 in three-pointers), but did make 23 of 32 free throws to the Mustangs' 4-6 at the line.
The Mustangs were led by Dez Willingham's 14 points and senior guard Bryan Hopkins added 12 points and 5 assists.
With the win, Rice becomes the seventh seed for next week's Conference USA Championship presented by Aeropostale and will meet SMU, the 10th seed, on Wednesday. Game time is at noon at the FedEx Forum in Memphis, Tenn.
